i think they could also be a company that could do well. >> though i don't think people are going to be staring at the ads too much on facebook. maybe they're talking with their friends. that does it for us here on the halftime show. let's send it over to "power lunch" and the latest on hurricane sandy. scott, thank you very much. we continue our breaking news coverage. hurricane sandy lashing out at the east coast of the united states. streets are flooding. that's the least of it. beaches eroding. this is the real deal, sue. >> indeed it is, ty. i'm sue herera. welcome to "power lunch." we have reporters and live cameras spanned out from washington, d.c. all the way up to new england. but we're going to start with meteorologist todd gross for an update. >> it is still looking grim. basically the two important things to note about this storm are number one, it is transitioning right now in to an extra tropical storm. non-hurricane. it's doing so with a very deep central pressure. you see that 943 mb?

that means it is 943 millibars. sounds technical? it means it is a really deep storm, even for a hurricane, and it is transitioning into a non-hurricane, and yet maintaining its strength. that's one important factor. the other important factor is take a look at the bends that this storm is making. you can see that really well on the satellite photograph. that bend from east to west is very important, because it is bringing the water with it. in fact, the only storm that ever did that before, at least in my lifetime, is the perfect storm back in 1991, just one day different from today. it was october 30th in '91. the differences between that storm and this one -- well, that storm, as you could see, basically skirted cape cod, never really making a full landfall, but -- but, there are important similarities as well. the similarity is, number one, extra tropical storm, was a hurricane, turned around. and number two, both those storms moving from east to west

bringing both the winds -- because of the counterclockwise circulation -- and the motion of the storm into the shorelines and thus bringing extra water. so the storm surge with this very powerful. wouldn't you know it, that storm surge ends up in the new york city vicinity. we're talking about long island sound. we're talking about the connecticut coastline. the new jersey shorelines. one of the possible places economically. already we're seeing some big surf but this is nothing compared to what we're going to see in just a few hours, because the tide is coming up at the same time as the storm is moving in. it is terrible timing. high tide is around 8:00 to 9:00 tonight. 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. is exactly when this storm is going to make landfall on the new jersey shorelines. somewhere near or slightly north of atlantic city. this is going to bear very close watching all afternoon into early this evening. again, the storm surge is the first problem. there's going to be massive power outages and in addition, of course, then there will be

some flooding rainfall. we'll talk about all those factors as the day wears on. we'll keep you posted on that. we'll have more in just a few minutes from now. >> thank you so very much, todd. we appreciate it. breaking news now. bob pisani has it. it concerns the exchanges. bob? >> of course, it's decision time about whether or not we're going to be open tomorrow. there is a conference call going on right now between all of the major exchanges, representatives of the brokerage industry, as well as the s.e.c. to make the final decision. all indications are, sue, that there will be no opening tomorrow of any of the exchanges as there has been today. the key that everyone is focusing on is wednesday. it is the end of the month. a lot of individuals, a lot of firms, need to report numbers for the end of the month. the focus is on opening wednesday. even if there is only a skeletal crew on the floor of the new york stock exchange and at other exchanges and other trading desks. the question of course is whether or not the system will be able to handle it and whether or not we'll have enough people to be able to come in. right now, sue, the idea is even

if it is just a shortened day -- just for a few hours -- the idea is to get the market open on wednesday. sue? back to you. >> thank you, bob. continue to monitor that call. take a look at this. this is what this massive storm looks like from outer space. you can see just how huge this system is that's called sandy. if you were wondering why parts of lower manhattan in new york city were evacuated, you need look no further than scott cohn's live shot. he's in battery park city. if you don't know, it is about a five-minute walk from the new york stock exchange. the ocean spilled over the wall there earlier this morning as the tide came in. scott, it seems like the rain's pick up a little bit but how are things now? >> reporter: sue, tyler, take a look at new york harbor. it is getting progressively worse and we are now at low tide so there's a big difference from what we showed you earlier. but the skies are darkening. the rain is coming in.

as you heard todd gross talk about, this is where storm surge will be coming in right as high tide happens this evening. and when we were here reporting earlier this morning, this was -- much of this area was under water. let's take a look at what it was like at high tide. again, that's just the morning tide with the full moon on top of it. not a lot of storm surge. at that point sandy was still several hundred miles from new york city. that's going to change when we get to the evening high tide. that is what everybody's worried about, what the exchanges are talking about and so on. as you then begin to realize why it is that this is becoming such an issue, even though the weather might not suggest it now. you look at what's going on in the financial district. sandbags are on the new york stock exchange. there's been water coming in over the flood wall by the new york mercantile exchange which is right on the hudson river. it is also difficult now getting in and out of manhattan.

two of the tunnels -- the brooklyn battery tunnel that connects manhattan and brooklyn closing at the top of the hour. the holland tunnel connecting lower manhattan with new jersey also closing. they are looking very closely at the bridges, if the winds get to be what they're saying they'll start closing bridges. so it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have people going in and out of the city, having people trying to get to work to the extent that they are going to and that's what the exchanges and everyone else are looking at right now. >> scott cohn reporting from manhattan. rpts por ports an refineries up and down the east coast are shut down in advance of sandy and the cost is adding up. mary thompson is in the port of baltimore. most of maryland set really to get hammered. mary? >> reporter: that's true, tyler. most of the state is under a flood warning. the governors saying they are expecting floods to be equivalent or worse than hurricane gloria back in 1985. of course that prompted the port of baltimore to shut down

earlier. similar actions being taken by the port of new york and new jersey as well as the port of delaware bay. those two ports are important to the east coast refineries. the reason being, most of the crude that those refineries use to make gasoline and other distillates is brought in through those two ports. now speaking of the refineries, a number of them have either shut down or operating at reduced capacity. if phillip's 66 lynn d 66 refin jersey shut down earlier today. three others including the largest on the east coast -- philadelphia energy solutions, they are running at a reduced capacity. all of this giving a lift to the price of gasoline on the futures market. as you might expect, investors and traders are anticipating tighter supplies but keep in mind, that is offset by a decrease in demand as investors stay home -- or i should say, drivers stay home in an area that accounts for about 2 million barrels per day of gasoline demand. now, there's another part of the

equation. that being the pipelines that helped to bring in the extra gasoline that's needed along the east coast. colonial pipeline, one of the largest, says it is right now looking at contingency plans to shut down in the event its customers, the refiners and some of the terminal operators, either reach capacity or shut down themselves. and at that point they say they might consider shutting down the pipeline. but again, it is a contingency plan right now. from a very rainy maryland, of course we're expecting the higher winds later today, but the rain which has been falling since about -- well, early this morning, continues for the next 24 hours. back to you. >> mary, stay safe. thank you so very much. let's head a little bit further up the coast to the jersey shore. it's the summer playground and casino lovers hotspot. it is now locked down and it is getting hit very hard. kayla tausche has been there all morning. kayla, over to you. >> reporter: sue, no question that new jersey is expected to bear the brunt of this storm when it makes landfall later this evening. that's going to coincide with a pretty nasty high tide for the entire shore from cape may here

to a little bit farther north in atlantic city, around 8:30 you could see water all the way up to where i'm standing right here. governor chris christie, you heard him a little bit earlier. he said in some parts of atlantic city flooding is up to five feet. and also we heard from public safety director william glass who said the entire city of atlantic city is under water. the damage already worse than 1962 on the flooding side there. take a look at this picture from nbc 10's ted greenberg. parts of atlantic city boardwalk broken and floating down the street. that's from earlier this morning. we talked to all the casino operators from there on the boardwalk but still have no comment from them and their operations and how they will continue following this storm. long beach island is a popular vacation spot for wall street. nearly completely flooded right now. the ocean and the bay close to meeting in long beach island. let's also think about when this high tide is expected to hit later today.

you can see the wind is picking up and the rain is picking up. we expect this to take place throughout the afternoon, guys. we will have more from cape may as we have it but you can see the storm is definitely ramping up. sue and tyler, back to you. >> thank you very much, kayla. of course, new york city schools closed today, closed again tomorrow. a big question for investors like you, what about the markets? the cme will not be open do tomorrow. when we come back we'll talk more about whether we will see trading at the new york stock exchange and nasdaq. bob pisani had the very latest just a few moments ago. conference calls taking place. we got more of cnbc's coverage of this unprecedented late season east coast hurricane after this quick break. be right back.

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absolutely stunning pictures of sandy as we take a look at this radar. as you can see, it is going to pack a wallop, not only in the high winds, but massive amounts of rain. it is a slow moving storm so it is going to be over much of the eastern seaboard for some time. as we have seen, hurricane sandy is already hitting the refineries, consumers and wall street. here to put some more numbers to the headlines. he's going to be with us the next couple of days. thank you so much for joining our team here at cnbc. or perhaps we're joining your

team at the weather channel. people are at home, they're not out shopping certainly. what's the impact do you think on the retail sector? >> it's going to be a significant impact. citigroup just put out an analysis of november, calendar november or physical november. they estimate that it could take about 3% or 4% off of specialty apparel retailers and specialty retailers in general because of the storm. ironically though, october will probably benefit from the storm because of the comparison to sn snowtober last year. we may see a bit after surprise on thursday. but november is going to take a big hit. >> what about the power outages that we are already starting to see. governor christie saying in southern new jersey, 35,000 people so far without power. obviously that is going to increase dramatically as the storm moves through. >> it looks like power outages could really be the big story and have the biggest economic impact overall.

johns hopkins put out a research study yesterday that estimated about 10 million people could lose power. that compares to about 7 million that lost power during irene. and it could take a week to get everybody back up and running because they won't be able to start putting things back together again until probably wednesday and it will be another five to seven days after that. big, big hit to the economy. >> paul, thank you so much. i know you're going to be with us for the next few days as we continue to work through hurricane sandy. thank you, paul. all right. tyler, over to you. >> thank you, sue. hurricane sandy of course bearing down, point pleasant, new jersey. some utilities bracing for the worse. we just talk a little bit about that. warning customers that they could be out of power for a week, ten days, maybe more. what kind of damage are we talking about here and will some utilities perform better than others. greg gordon is senior managing director at isi group. mr. gordon, welcome, good to see you. can any utility that will be affected by this storm be described as a potential winner?

>> no. look, these companies are regulated. they are -- they make fixed rates of return on the infrastructure and their job is to provide service. when you have a natural disaster of this proportion, their job is to restore that service as quickly as possible. i've been on the phone and talking to ceos of a bunch of companies since yesterday morning. the good news is i really do believe that these companies are better prepared for this storm than they've ever been prepared for any other storm, especially after the problems that several of them had last year with hurricanes. the companies from all over the country are contributing crews and equipment. tom fanning who's been a guest speaker here on your show, who's the ceo of southern company, has sent over 1,000 crews. crews are being flown in from as far as washington and san francisco that have been prestaged nap is they are already here, prestaged with equipment so that as soon as this wind and water recede they

can get to work restoring power. >> last year i believe connecticut power and light was one of the ones that got a lot of criticism for a slow, tardy response. is any one of the publicly traded utilities on the eastern seaboard more vulnerable, more likely to suffer potentially grave damage to its market value? >> you know, that is really a function of whether or not when all of the storm damage reseeds, they're perceived as having done the best they could in restoring service or whether they're deemed to have been in some way not sort of completely competent in the recovery efforts. and so what we'll see as this recedes is ewe'll watch very closely companies like potomac, first energy, con ed, northeast utilities, for signs that the regulators are happy or unhappy with their performance. >> what kind of write-downs or costs are some of these

companies likely to face? we talking in the hundreds of millions of dollars? we talking in the billions potentially? what? >> the restoration costs are going to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but as long as those costs are deemed to be necessary for the restoration effort, they will ultimately be recovered from customers. it is when you start to get into a situation where you're deemed to have been sort of not competent in your recovery efforts that you're at risk of having to write those off. that could be a headwind for the shares. but look, i think the story here is, these companies are really doing their best to be ready to restore service and i'd be -- i actually don't think that we're going to see much of that. if this was a traditional hurricane -- >> we have to go to some breaking news. i'm sorry for interrupting you, greg. thank you for being with us. it's official. bottom line is, the new york stock exchange will be closed tomorrow, along with all the other exchanges, indeed all of the other bond, option and derivatives exchanges. also tomorrow they're going to make every effort to open on wednesday, conditions permitting, and tyler, the

important thing here is conditions permitting. it's the end of the month. they've made it very clear -- all the exchanges -- that they want to open at least for some period. it's possible there could be an abbreviated session on wednesday as well, but surely they're going to try to open with at least a skeletal staff at the new york stock exchange and along with all of the other exchanges as well. tyler? >> all right, bob. so this could possibly then open on wednesday. might be a delayed opening, an abbreviated session. will it include the traditional floor trading or just electronics or do we noe know? >> as of now, the hope is they will be able to open with at least a skeletal staff on the floor of the new york stock exchange. have everything open. but then again, if that's not possible, they well he could just go to electronic trading as well. the idea is to open one way or another, with every means possible, on wednesday. >> bob, you gave a very good explainer of this earlier. because a lot of people are focused on the electronic trading platforms that all the

exchanges have. and were asking questions about, well, why can't they just trade electronically. can you basically refresh the conversation that you and i and others had earlier this morning for those at home who may not understand why it is important for the exchange to physically have people on the floor. >> reporter: electronic trade something not tng w humans. electronic trading is trading using computers, but there are still humans behind that. so here in new york, for example, there are thousands of people who are marketmakers for the nasdaq, as well as the nyse. there are also thousands of people on the sell side who work at the brokerage firms, the merrill lynches and goldman sachs and morgan stanleys of the world. they're involved in the markets. then hedge funds and mutual funds are involved in trading. if you remove a substantial number of those people, don't allow them to trade, you create a very, very thin market. i think that's part of the problem. >> any word from nasdaq, bob? >> it's going to be all of the exchanges. it's not just the new york stock

exchange. this is a joint statement. i think you're going to find all the exchanges doing exactly the same thing. they have acted together. there was a final conference call just a few minutes ago with all the exchanges on this. >> thanks, bob. sandy could also wreak havoc on the elections. it is only eight days to go, of course. what impact will the big storm have on voter turnout? will sandy turn out to be the october surprise? thousands of flights have already been canceled. we're going to take you to delta's operations center coming up as this special edition of "power lunch" continues in just a moment. up. a short word that's a tall order. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything

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at this point about the impact on the election, i'm not worried. i'm worried about the impact on our families, the impact on our first responders. i'm worried about the impact on our economy and on transportation. the election will take care of itself next week. >> president obama speaking a few moments ago about preparations for hurricane sandy and how it might affect the election. big storm forcing him and governor romney to cut short campaigning for today. what impact will sandy have on the voting and the elections? our chief washington correspondent john harwood joins us.

hi, john. >> president obama's campaign hopes it is going to help him for two reasons. one, that he gets to fulfill the role as commander in chief and ahead of the federal government help states that are affected by this, but also because they think they're winning this race in the battlegrounds and that effectively the race is frozen. now governor romney was out in ohio today, campaigning, making some arguments about the auto bailout which has been an issue that's helped president obama in the state of ohio. but the problem for mitt romney and anyone else participating in the campaign right now is all the coverage is drowning out anything that politicians say. we are locked in a very tight race. we had two new polls out this morning, tracking polls. one, the washington post/abc news poll showed mitt romney 49%-brah 49%-barack obama 48%. another poll shows pro seciselye opposite. obama 48%.

but they're the same poll. with a margin of error, we have essentially a tie race but the obama team believes that their advantage is in the battleground states like iowa, states like nevada, states like ohio that mitt romney needs and we'll see whether they are right. but as of now, it appears unlikely that things are going to move very much over the next couple of days because romney's canceled campaign events tomorrow, so has the president. >> when we talk about the sort of being a dead heat in the popular vote, what do we know about the way the electoral vote may be breaking one way or another, given the way the polls have gone in the past week or so. >> the electoral vote count is what i was talking about with respect to the battleground states. the president has more states where he is either securely ahead or leaning his way than mitt romney does, and so he's got less distance to make up to the finish line in the electoral battlegrounds. for example, mitt romney's leading in the state of florida, which has 29 electoral votes.

that's crucial, but it is not enough. he needs some of the other big states. he needs so win virginia. his campaign also believes he needs to win ohio. what we've seen in the polls is the president has a lead which is not very large but it's been pretty stable. >> john harwood, thanks very much. gentlemen, airlines are bracing for the worst as hurricane sandy begins to slam the east coast. thousands of flights have been grounded, canceled. phil lebeau is at delta's operation center in atlanta with an update for us. phil? >> hi, sue. here at delta they have just announced new cancellations running through tomorrow night. we'll run down the numbers for not only delta but all of the airlines and the airports affected when "power lunch" returns.

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hurricane sandy, of course, barreling towards the east coast. there you see lower manhattan is expected to bring life threatening storm surges, high winds and sheets of rain. whether channel meteorologist brian norcross joins us. brian, you've been tracking storms for a very long time. where does sandy rank in all the weather events you've seen? >> it's exceptional. it's at the top of the list

under many categories. we've never seen a hurricane -- and this is actually a hurricane, this part of the storm is a real live 90-mile-an-hour hurricane with wind gusts over 100 miles an hour. at this latitude moving toward the coast. that never has happened in the history books. and then you add to that exceptional thing the fact that it extends all the way to new england and all the way down to north carolina. we're going to have what we think may be record breaking storm surge in new york city, in new york harbor, on long island sound and up along the jersey shore. this is imminent, tyler. it is going to happen this afternoon, into very early this evening. along the jersey shore there from sandy hook -- that's north jersey -- all the way down to cape may, including the north side of delaware bay there in the state of delaware. anybody that is there near the coast at a low lying area is in severe risk here right now this afternoon. >> so unprecedented in terms of size and in terms of potential impact. how far inland does that storm

surge go if it is as bad as you say it may well be? >> well, it really depends on exactly where you are and how low lying you are. many parts of the coast, there are barrier islands. it is going to go over some of those barrier islands. other parts, it kind of goes up pretty quickly and it is going to go up against that land. up here in new england there are a lot of rocky shore lines. it just goes up against the rocks. but it also tends to get funneled. here with new york and new jersey, you have what's called the new york bite. it's that angle there. so the water is actually right now higher at sandy hook than it is down in atlantic city closer to the storm because that water's getting funneled in there, and then it drains in to new york harbor. >> fascinating. >> but you also have the water coming from long island sound down the east river so you have a convergence which makes the water rise. then you have the water trying to come down the hudson river which makes the water rise and that's why we have the concern for lower lying areas. >> say i live on long beach

island in new jersey. let's say i have a place on fire island. what's going to happen there? are those islands going to be cut in two? >> well, they may very well be. two things going on here. on long beach island right here in the middle of new jersey you have very low lying areas. in the low end of the island, up by harvey cedars. you'll have this massive mound of water come up, maybe 10 or 11 feet with wave on top of that, that will go over that island and it may wash out some places on the island as happened before. on fire island, have you a little different thing. here the waves are going to be higher up there because there will be a long duration of southerly winds pounding there. i'm very fearful for fire island and those water front homes even though they are elevated. >> finally the big island, manhattan island, new york city, what will the effects be on manhattan and in the outer boroughs, including staten isla island, brooklyn, queens. >> so two things in manhattan. big threat is for low lying

areas where they've evacuated -- water may even get a little higher than that. but taking out the subways, getting saltwater into the subways and the tunnels, that's a huge threat in manhattan. the other threat is that the high-rise buildings -- people at the very highest levels may get winds 100, 110 miles per hour which could take some piece of metal off of this building down here and blow it in to your building. people in high rises need to close the drapes, stay in interior areas as long as the wind is really blowing and whipping around those high-rise buildings. >> brian norcross, thank you very much. we appreciate your perspective and time today. sue? ty, what brian just said about the subways and the water that gets down there and the saltwater that could go along with it and corrode the wires, that's one of the considerations that the exchanges took under advisement in terms of whether or not they are going to open for trading. >> they had a major problem. if you haven't heard, the news is the exchanges will be closed tomorrow. all exchanges will be closed

tomorrow as well. the effort is not going to go to opening on wednesday. wednesday's important because it is the last day of the trading month. a lot of firms get their p and l statements out at the end of the month. mutual funds want their net asset values out. the push now is to open an wednesday. question is will they be able to? the important thing is they're going to try to do this, even if they have to do a shortened trading session, even if it is only three or four hours, even if they have to open with a skeletal crew, if that's not possible, maybe just go to electronic trading but that's going to be the definite move here. that's been the right call given the severity of this storm. quite amazing. >> if they had decided to stay open, the potential for an incredibly thin market, and incredible volatility existed as well, not to mention the risk to human life. that of course is paramount. but given what we've seen with flash crashes and things like that in the past, i would think that would have been consideration as well. >> it was consideration. you have electronic trade something not trading with no humans. there's plenty of humans

involved. even with electronic trading, you have marketmakers at nasdaq and nyse, you've got thousands of people on the sell side at big brokerage firms at goldman sachs, morgan stanley, people on the buy side in hedge funds and mutual funds, they're all part of the market. you take that out of the market, the ability of those people to get to work. who do you have that's actually trading out there? that's a legitimate concern because all of us are worried about liquidity, market structure and market stability. >> bob, thank you. you'll continue to monitor this situation. >> i'm here all day and into the night. >> most of us will indeed. the airlines of course also preparing for the worst. more than 8,900 flights canceled as sandy works its way inland. delta airlines already one of the many feeling that impact. phil lebeau is live at his operations center in atlanta for us. phil? >> sue, delta along with other airlines announcing a new round of cancellations. we'll run those down in just a little bit. put this into perspective how many cancellations we've seen. starting with yesterday, the most impacted airport was newark

and the total number. cancellations, about 1,300. today 6,800 flights canceled. philly being the most affected airport. this number we are focusing on for tomorrow -- 2,594 flight cancellations but that number will go considerably higher. delta is now canceling all flights out of laguardia through tuesday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. all international flights out of jfk are also canceled through tomorrow night. united canceling all flights at its three new york airports through tuesday night, and american suspending operations at nine airports, including the big three in new york, through wednesday midday. now the financial impact of sandy is something that wall street is focused on. too early to know for sure. depends a lot on how many of these flights are rebooked. positive for this storm, if there is one for the airlines, october is the slowest time of the year. the revenue loss is going to be lower. on the other side, it is an extended shutdown. what that means is that you have a lower percentage of flights that are going to be rebooked. it might only be 70 or 75%.

bottom line -- if you're looking for a guideline for how much this hurricane might cost the airlines, consider this. irene cost an estimated $300 million. i talked with one analyst today who said take irene, add another 50%. that's an idea of what sandy might cost the airlines. guys, back to you. >> phil, thank you. phil lebeau in atlanta for us. let's look at some of the non-storm related stories that have crossed the tape today. ford has dropped to next to last among 28 car brands in the "consumer reports" 2012 reliability survey. toyota toyota's, lexus and toyota brands took the top spot. early earnings release for anadarko petroleum reporting third quarter profit of 84 cents a share. that was eight cents higher than estimates. anadarko had been zuscheduled t release earnings after the

now-non-existent bell today. ebay has told workers some jobs are being eliminated. they'll take a $15 million charge related to those cuts. take a look at this home video just in to us from city island, new york. it is a small island in new york city proper. it is just off the bronx. you can see the water pummelling that house that's to the right of your screen there. it was sent in by the sister of one of our desk producers. we hope everybody out there is going to stay safe. as we continue to watch sandy slam against the east coast, there is another storm that continues to intensify a bit more inland. some say it's the most important state in this year's presidential election. we're going to sit down with the mayor of columbus, ohio and the mayor of newark, ohio with their take on how close this race really is in the buckeye state. [ male announcer ] the 2013 smart comes with 8 airbags, a crash management system

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coming up on "street signs" the top of the hour -- another perfect storm. we are continuing our live coverage of hurricane sandy with the debate on whether the new york stock exchange's closure points to an outdated system. and sandy might actually be good for gas prices, though for the wrong reasons. as some areas might even find it tough to find fuel at pumps. plus, ford's decision to release earnings as scheduled tomorrow despite the storm. why aren't they postponing like many other companies? lots of things going on. guys, back to you on "power lunch." see you top of the hour, 2:00 p.m. eastern. this election could all come down to ohio. a big reason why both candidates have been focused on the buckeye state, perhaps like never before, since ohio has gone with the winning presidential candidate in every election

since 1964. if you want to know what's happening in a state, you ask the mayors. michael coleman is the democratic mayor of columbus. and jeff hall is the republican mayor in newark, ohio. mr. mayors, welcome to "power lunch." it is a pleasure to have you with us. mayor coleman, i'm going to start with you. i assume that you think the president will take ohio. tell me why. >> well, at this point it is about the ground game. it's also about the early vote turnout. and obama campaign has a very strong get out the vote effort, the best i've ever seen in my 20 years in politics. it is absolutely unbelievable. and in the early votes, it is turning out in greater numbers now than it ever has. >> really. very interesting. >> yeah. it's incredible. it's happening right now. it is going to be a tight race. we've always known it is going to be a tight race. but i do believe that the president will be the victor at

the end. >> mayor hall, statistically, it is a dead heat. we've seen the latest poll numbers just out this morning. basically, it's a dead heat here. why do you think mr. romney will be able to pull out a victory in ohio? >> well, i think pretty much because the past four years. we've seen what the president has to offer. his going forward isn't a whole lot different than it's been in the past four years. and i think people are ready for a change. big word obama used last time. he was going to cut the deficit in half, increase jobs, we have a little bit of job growth. i don't always credit washington for that. i do credit the states and localities for that. but certainly the deficit's getting out of control and i think people are worried about their future generations being strapped with that. surely governor romney's been in ohio probably just as much as the president. they're hitting us quite a bit. people had a chance to listen what he had to say and trust in

it. >> mayor coleman, you're mayor of columbus, ohio. the biggest city. how is the economy? it's coming down in this election to not only the future for other generations but also the economic picture in specific areas of the country. how is the economy in columbus right now? >> the economy in columbus is vastly improving. in fact, we're leading the way for the rest of the state. our unemployment rate is 5.7%. still, we have much more to go. we're the lowest unemployment rate in the entire state. frankly, it is the work of the locality, it is the work of our work here in the city of columbus, working with the business community to help turn our economy around and i think the auto saving, the auto bailout helped out the entire state but also helped out the city as well. and, you know, no one person can claim total responsibility for the turnaround of ohio. one governor pounding his chest saying he's turned around the

economy. frankly him taking full credit is disingenuous. >> well, that's what makes a race, i think. >> but everybody made a contribution. i think in columbus the reason we're leading the state is not because of the state but because of what we have done over time in the city of columbus. this is now my 13th year of mayor. we have a great working relationship with the business community. what i recommend to the president after this election is to really focus on this fiscal cliff that we're seeing coming up real soon and work on cutting the deficit, but also look at raising revenue among those who can afford it the most, and work with the business community around the nation to come to the table to help reach across the aisle to bring the republicans and anybody else and come to a compromise where people can see our economy grow nationally. >> i want to get mayor hall in here. give me a thumbnail sketch of

how the economy is doing in newark and also if you'd like to comment on the fiscal cliff. we're asking all the ceos and politicians that we have on our air to talk about that. mayor hall, first of all, the economy. how is it? >> our economy's doing good. we sit in a county east of columbus called lincoln county. our unemployment rate is below the national average and doing real good. that's local efforts, a little bit as mayor coleman spoke about. local efforts. we're working hard, we're getting things done. both at the county level, we're using public-private partnerships. we do believe job growth comes from the private sector but we don't want government standing in the way. that's where we have some concerns today at the federal level. some mandates an certainly some restrictions. and taxes that are causing some issues. we look forward to a positive economy growth in our areas. >> are you at all hopeful that we will be able to avoid the fiscal cliff or do you think, as others do, that they're going to

take it right up to the 11th hour? >> well, i think surely it probably will go to the 11th hour. we've seen that in the past. >> yes, we have. >> history repeats itself. that's something -- we need a strong leader out there. i think mitt romney shows that. people are recognizing that. a strong leader to avoid some of that. i'm working on next year's budget now. we'll have it done early. we're not going to the 11th hour. that's where people get concerned, cause a stalemate both in business development and in spending. we need to put the confidence back in the great country we are and in the citizens. we have businesses with cash. they're cash fat in some places but they're not comfortable yet to spend that and grow. so we got to quit this 11th hour type stuff. >> we've heard that story from a number of officials across the country. mayor coleman, mayor hall, thank you. we want to extend out our concerns for the east coast. >> we thank you very much. thank you very much.

>> same here. absolutely. >> i'm sure everybody out there thanks you for your kind thoughts. when we return, more on the breaking news of the hour and the day. the u.s. markets are going to be closed again tomorrow. cnbc's continuing coverage of hurricane sandy returns after this. look, if you have copd like me, you know it can be hard to breathe, and how that feels. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

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let's take a look now at cape may, new jersey, where the waves are high and the winds are lashing a bit. it's sort of low tidish, i believe now, certainly in many parts. we await the higher tides later this evening when the massive storm surge is likely to hit cape may, all up the jersey coast and into manhattan. you're now going to witness broadcasting history, because it takes a storm of the century to have bill griffeth and bob pisani here on the set with us. when was the last time that the exchanges have been closed for two days in a row for weather? >> it's been a long, long time. '85 it was closed very briefly for a big storm. hurricane gloria.

t all the major markets will be closed again tomorrow and open on wednesday. the idea about opening on wednesday is it is the end of the month and it is important to try to open because a lot of firms price at the end of the month. p and ls come out, mutual funds. >> a lot of mutual funds close their fiscal books for the year. >> you've got a lot of things that are happening. all these earnings reports that are scheduled to be put out. the economic data, the jobs report on friday may be delayed now as a result of all of this. but the closing the exchange -- there are those who are criticizing that saying why can't they at least get some guys -- the traders together with their computers and trade this market. there will be people who will be crying that they can't get access to their money for four straight days, if you include the weekend. there used to be laws against that. the old bank act of 1932. >> i think you can make an argument that there wasn't a sufficiently broad back-up plan. if you look at it this way, in

my opinion, there is nobody who's going to be trading. trading was going to be so extraordinarily thin, without having major market participants. what's the point in opening the markets then when you could have some -- there's not a lot of people to deal with it in case something goes wrong. there's a lot of issues about whether or not the market could be bandied around by other kinds of people. >> and you immediate to sneed t here of safety. this is a big storm as we've all been emphasizing here. and the people who would have to go downtown to be a part of the trading prices -- not talking about at the exchange. i'm talking about those trading floors that exist down, if not in zone a, just out of zone a in southern manhattan. they would have to go down there, maybe spend the night, but they would be in a high-risk area and you cannot do that to send a message out there. when on the one hand you're warning everybody to flee new york city because of safety issues, but get our traders down there on the trade floor. >> i'm going to ask probably a ridiculous question of you.

would this be a circumstance where nasdaq and the new york stock exchange would love to beat the other one back online? >> there's always -- >> i have been there 15 years and watched this. highs and lows of it. i think at this point they all came together. they realize that there's obviously mutual interest in them all coming together. one thing that's extraordinary about this story, for all the talk that the financial district isn't what it used to be, that new york is a financial center isn't what it used to be. here we have a storm that essentially shut down stock trading of all kinds. new york, for all the criticism, is still the center of the stock trading universe. maybe it shouldn't be, but it certainly demonstrated that it was today. >> gentlemen, thank you very much. nice to have you both here. coming up on "street signs," the impact on your biggest investment and how some home insurers and homeowners are gearing up for the potential damage from this massive storm. hurricane sandy. be right back.

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as we continue to follow sandy, you can see we have on the left-hand side of your screen, we have basically cape

may, new jersey, and the jersey shore, central new jersey shore, is basically going to be the center of the storm and is expected to get hit very hard. but this storm is so massive in terms of its width and its breadth, that it is already being felt in narragansett, rhode island, ty. >> they're getting ready for kayla to y kay kayla's shot on "street signs." atlantic city has been fighting very hard to regain their relevance, competing against new casinos cropping up all across the country. it hasn't been easy. they've been out trying to promote their busy very heavily. new revel casino down there, which has had its troubles. they haven't even opened the whole thing yet. this doesn't do them any bit of good. as you look at these loops, the orange is the heaviest rain. you can see the eye of the storm moving cr